Utah Utes men's basketball: Fall at home again

SALT LAKE CITY — David Foster blocked nine shots Wednesday night to break the Utah single-season record for blocked shots.

Other than that, there was not much positive to say about the Utes' dreadful 65-50 loss to Colorado State at the Huntsman Center.

Another bad start for the Utes? Check.

Poor outside shooting? Check.

Poor defensive rebounding? Check.

Too many turnovers? Check.

It was another one of those nights for the schizophrenic Utes (10-12, 3-5), who dropped their sixth home game of the year, this time to one of the Mountain West Conference bottom-feeders.

"Poor second half, poor start to the game ... we got in a hole again early and had to fight our way back," said Utah coach Jim Boylen. "You can't have 16 turnovers and and you can't get outshot by 15 at home. It's frustrating."

The Rams employed a zone defense that stymied the Utes' offense and used balanced scoring on offense with Andy Ogide scoring 14 and Travis Busch and Dorian Green 13 apiece to improve to 13-9 and 4-4 in MWC play.

The Utes didn't have their best outside shooter, Marshall Henderson, who was sitting out because of a one-game suspension for fighting in Saturday night's loss to BYU. Also, Luka Drca wasn't 100 percent after sitting out the previous two days with back spasms.

Boylen said his team missed the threat of Henderson's shooting as much as they missed him on the floor.

"We need an extra shooter on the floor. With no Drca and no Henderson, I'd play zone too against us," Boylen said.

Boylen couldn't explain why he didn't play Jordan Cyphers, who was recruited for his outside shooting, but has played little this season. A day earlier Boylen had said his team would need Cyphers and Chris Hines, who played just three minutes. When asked why he didn't use Cyphers, he simply said, "We didn't use him tonight."

The Ute coach acknowledged he probably shouldn't have played Drca, who struggled all night with five turnovers and just 1-of-3 shooting in 20 minutes.

"I just wanted to help the team, but unfortunately I didn't," Drca said. "I was a step late and my passes were off. I was horrible."